Beef from Brazil: JBS Faces Allegations of Amazon Deforestationby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJune 6th, 2012The Xavante tribe in western Brazil and the Parakana tribe in the north-east are separated by a thousand miles of the Amazon basin but they face a common threat: the sprawling global beef export empire controlled by the Batista family from the state of Goiás.

Coral Before Coal: Great Barrier Reef Projects Haltedby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJune 5th, 2012A $6.3 billion coal mine project in the Galilee Basin in Queensland that could impact the Great Barrier Reef, has been halted by Tony Burke, Australian environment minister. The Alpha project is the first of several major coal projects being pushed by Campbell Newman, the premiere of Queensland.

Ikea Furniture Made From Ancient Russian Treesby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMay 31st, 2012Kalevala, a 19th century epic poem from Finland, was inspired by traditional verses from the ancient forests on the border of central Finland and Russia. Today some of the 600 year old trees around the Kalevala national park are being chopped up to make cheap furniture for Ikea, according to activists.

How Obama Helped Authorize Shell’s Drilling the Arcticby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMay 23rd, 2012President Barack Obama personally helped Shell obtain authorization to drill for oil in Alaska, according to a new article in the New York Times. This comes a day afer activists launched two reports on the environemental impact of the drilling plans at the company’s annual meeting in the Hague.

Enbridge, Bank of America CEOs Targeted for Extreme Energy Impactsby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMay 10th, 2012Protestors targeted annual general meetings of Enbridge and Bank of America this week for the devastating environmental consequences of extracting energy from two new and unconventional sources: tar sands and mountain top coal.

North Dakota Shale Boom Displaces Tribal Residentsby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 25th, 2012A shale oil boom in North Dakota is displacing residents from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Fires light up the sky every night as natural gas is flared off while the ground water has been contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Lukoil Threatens Arctic Reindeerby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 23rd, 2012An oil spill in northern Russia from a joint venture between Lukoil and Bashneft has damaged fragile reindeer pastures in yet another blow to the indigenous Nenets people. Environmental activists have warned about such disasters for decades but few precautions have been taken by the oil companies.

Peru’s Illegal Hardwood Timber Trade
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 11th, 2012Grupo Bozovich - Peru's biggest hardwood exporter - has been accused of harvesting illegal timber, in a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency. The Laundering Machine report claims that many of the timber certificates do not represent the actual source of the wood.

Fracking South Africaby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMarch 29th, 2012The Karoo desert in the Western Cape region of South Africa is threatened by companies like Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil company, Falcon Oil & Gas and Bundu Oil & Gas that want to frack for natural gas.

Chevron & Transocean Back in the Dock Over Oil Spillsby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMarch 22nd, 2012Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports while they await the outcome of criminal charges brought against them for a spill that took place off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last November. Both companies have been in trouble for similar problems in the past.

Emerald Energy Exploits Colombian Andesby Elias Cabrera, Special to CorpWatchMarch 18th, 2012Emerald Energy, a UK company owned by Sinochem of China, is exploring for oil in the eastern Colombian Andes in the high altitude tropical mountain tundra ecosystem known as páramo. Local communities say that the company's underground explosions have caused landslides and ground collapses that have destroyed homes, crops and contaminated the local water supply.

Green Deserts: The Palm Oil Conflictby Melody Kemp, Special to CorpWatchFebruary 16th, 2012Wilmar of Singapore, the world’s biggest global processor and merchandiser of palm oil, has come in for harsh criticism for the environmental and social impact of its Indonesian plantations. The allegations also raise serious questions about the role of WWF and the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Keystone Pipeline Faces Indigenous Trans-Border Oppositionby Geoff Dembicki, Special to CorpWatchOctober 4th, 2011TransCanada is seeking permission to build a 1,661-mile-long oil pipeline to carry crude from Alberta's oil sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Tribal leaders from both sides of the border have joined environmental activists to oppose the project.

Burmese Crossroads: Oil & Gas Rush Stokes Civil Warby Matthew F Smith, Special to CorpWatchJuly 26th, 2011Chinese and South Korean companies are leading an investor rush to Burma to build lucrative cross-country pipelines to deliver Saudi oil and Burmese natural gas to China. Poor communities have been displaced and allegations of human rights abuses are rife in the pipeline's route.

Toxic Pop: How Tar Sands Fuel Disposable Cansby Geoff Dembicki, Special to CorpWatchJuly 11th, 2011One in six of the 100 billion soda, beer, and juice cans cracked open by North Americans each year owe their existence to an industrial product manufactured from Alberta’s tar sands. The result is an environmental disaster for Canada as well as a major contributor to global warming.

Killing Clean Energy Lawsby Geoff Dembicki, Special to CorpWatchMay 5th, 2011Tar sands from Alberta have enabled Canada to become the largest supplier of crude oil to the U.S. Tom Corcoran, a Washington lobbyist, is paid to promote this rapidly growing industry that produces some of the most emissions-heavy gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel on the planet.

ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
by Charlie Cray, Special to CorpWatchMay 18th, 2010ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform.

BP: Beyond Petroleum or Beyond Preposterous? (2000)by Kenny BrunoMay 12th, 2010In 2000 British Petroleum launched an expensive ad campaign, re-branding its corporate image into the eco-friendly "BP: Beyond Petroleum.” We said it then. When a company spends more on advertising its environmental friendliness than on environmental actions, that's greenwash.
Three long weeks into the BP oil disaster roiling the Gulf of Mexico, CorpWatch's December 2000 skewering of its new image sadly, bears repeating.